Examples of Strength, Hope And Kindness In 'To The Lighthouse'

Virginia Woolf, the author of To the Lighthouse is well known for her amazing creativity and past experiences which she is able to mix all together to make a wonderful and engaging piece of writing. Many of her books are inspired by her childhood and the diverse life she has experienced being bipolar. Virginia's inspiration specifically for the book To the Lighthouse, written in 1927, came from the view she had from outside the window of a small Talland house of a lighthouse and The Cornish Sea, once owned by the Woolf’s but now an apartment, she and her family would stay at each summer to run and take care of until her mother passed, which takes a huge toll in To the Lighthouse.

To the Lighthouse was a fantastic book! I really loved a lot of the poetry throughout the book and seeing the story from so many different points of view. I really enjoyed the realness and connections you could make with each character and how you could envision just about everything because of the detailed way she would describe things. I found her writing, for the most part, general and subtle but the way she wrote it that was all she needed. It was interesting to me to see how she split the book into sections and chose to write one part of the book with no dialogue. I will say that when she wrote with dialogue it made it a little tricky with all the characters speaking throughout the book. Some of these characters consist of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay and their eight children, Lily Briscoe, Charles Tansley, Paul Rayley, Minta Doyle, Mr. Mcalister and his boy, Mrs. McNab, William Bankes, and Augustus Carmichael.The book begins with the Ramsay’s going out to stay at their summer home on the Isle of Skye for a family vacation. During this vacation Virginia Woolf brings us close to the characters and their vacation through the relatable emotions that go on within the home. Mrs. Ramsay, a beautiful big hearted woman struggles to run the family on her own and at times finds herself lonely due to her husband's (Mr. Ramsay) selfishness.

Some of her greatest attributes is her ability to make something so short and even unpleasant beautiful and memorable with her supporting and loving character. Mr. Ramsay on the other hand is a selfish hard hearted man. Yet somewhere finds room for the great love he has for each of his children. He is worried for what comes in the future and the worth he feels that he lacks in his work, he hardly has any time for anyone but himself. One of my absolute favorite characters is Lily Briscoe. She is a wonderful artist yet lacks self confidence because of the harsh insults given by some of the men that are also staying with the Ramsays on the isle of skye. Such as Charles Tansley, similar to Mr. Ramsay, which makes sense considering he is one of his students, does not believe that women can paint. Everything takes place at a small house down close to the lighthouse filled with friends of the Ramsays. Throughout the book, the characters face many trials having to do with time, love, and life. Virginia brings you on a ride through each characters mind and demonstrates the importance of sympathy, attention, kindness, and confidence and how certain characters deal with certain circumstances. But most of all, she exhibits the difference and interactions between man and women. Virginia begins the book with so much chaos and hatred and slowly throughout the book she brings it all at peace in some magical touching way.I will be one hundred percent honest and say that this book was more challenging than I thought it would have been. I have a short attention span and I had a really hard time getting locked in the book. I believe most of it had to do with the confusion I was facing as I read on. There are so many characters it’s hard to keep up with them all and know who’s talking to who when and where. But in the end I feel like I got what I was looking for. I learned new techniques on how to improve my writing. Mostly grammar related. I also learned some important life lessons from different characters in the book.

My favorite is said by Mr. Ramsay in a poem he read to everyone at a dinner “And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves.” Which just taught me that there is always room for improvement and there is always time for change and that there is always hope and potential in everyone and thing.This book definitely brought light and showed examples of strength, hope, kindness, and encouragement. Which made it life changing. I think the biggest lesson I learned from the book is about forgiveness. You watch as all the characters are distant from each other but over time through forgiveness they become closer, more peaceful, and happier. Even in the toughest of situations the answer as to how to solve it is forgiveness. As shown in the book it isn’t always easy but at some point you just need to do it. I would recommend this book to someone slightly older. I think they would enjoy the book much more than I and anyone else younger than me because of the attention needed to comprehend it and the larger vocabulary used. I think the lessons you learn from the book would best be applied and appreciated to someone closer to my age and older. I think if I were to read any other of her books I would have enjoyed them. This particular one was not my favorite. I think I was too distracted to appreciate most of it. The parts I did get were absolutely phenomenal! This is why I hope to go through it one more time just to get the rest of the book in. I am not much of a book worm so that’s saying quite a bit. Thank you!